#this is like 2/10ths of all the photos I actually took. So many beautiful sights

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My trip to Kaua'i, Hawai'i

Yellow Hibiscus: The state flower of Hawai'i. Called the “pua mao hau hele” or “Ma’o hau hele” in the Hawaiian Language (ʻŌlelo).

Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose): The rarest waterfowl in the world. Nearly brought to extinction in 1990 with 50 wild individuals. Captive-breeding programs and reintroduction efforts have given the native nēnē a chance with now over 3,862 birds statewide. I was lucky enough to see wild nēnē goslings. Very special.

Honu (Green Sea Turtle): An endangered species most commonly found near the Hawaiian Island Chain. Typically reaching sexual maturity around 20 years of age, Green sea turtles nest on the same beach where they hatched. This is a photo I took of a female rising up from the shore to lay her eggs.

Landscape photos I took on my trip in Kaua'i.

Kaua'i is one of many islands comprising the Hawaiian Volcanic Island Archipelago. I bought a Kaua'i Geologic History Book to learn more about the island and I am very excited to read it.

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What to do in Sofia: The ultimate Sofia travel guide

Hello fellow travellers! Alexx here from Finding Alexx. I’m on a year-long solo adventure to a new country every week for a year, with my route based entirely off the cheapest flight each Tuesday. Yep, it’s as hectic as it sounds! This insane adventure took me to Sofia, a gorgeous hidden gem in the Balkans and the capital city of Bulgaria. Here’s all you need to know if you’re considering a trip to Sofia, from what to do, where to sleep to how to get around and more.

Where to stay in Sofia

Let’s kick this off with some good news… Sofia is the ideal spot if you’re on a budget! There are plenty of cheap hostels in Sofia with dorm beds for less than $13 a night, or you can get a budget-friendly hotel room from about $32 a night.

Normally I’m a big advocate for accommodation with full kitchen facilities so you can save money on food, but food in Sofia is so cheap (and good!) that there’s honestly no need to cook your own food.

Some great options for places to stay in Sofia are Generaator Hostel, Peter Pan Hostel, 5 Vintage Guest House and the aptly-named Hotel Cheap.

How to get around Sofia

If you’re staying in the city centre and you don’t mind getting your steps up, you’ll probably be able to see the city pretty easily by foot. A lot of the main sights are within walking distance, and wandering aimlessly around the city was how I found loads of my top food recommendations!

If you prefer to get somewhere quicker (and maybe drier), there are trams, buses and the metro. A single ride is 1.60BGN (about 90 cents) or a day pass with unlimited travel is 4BGN (about $2).

There’s no Uber in Sofia, but there is a great local taxi app that does the same thing, called TaxiMe. You can sign up with your UK number, add in your credit card and hail a ride through the app just like you would anywhere else.

To get to and from the airport easily and relatively cheaply, I’d recommend getting a taxi from the airport taxi stand. Only one company is authorised to provide taxi services at the airport and they’ve got standard fare rates, so follow the signs to the official taxi area and you’ll be looked after. To get into the city centre you should pay about 15-20BGN ($8-$12).

On a super tight budget? You can get the metro from Terminal 2 at the airport to Serdika station for 1.60BGN (cash only so you’ll need to use an ATM at the airport), then transfer to a bus, tram or other metro to get closer to your hotel.

How much to budget for Sofia

Yay for cheap destinations! Much like my week in Warsaw, Sofia was a real treat for my wallet.

If you’re looking for a challenge, Sofia is actually possible to experience from only $15-$20 per day. This would cover cheap hostel accommodation ($9-$13) and supermarket or bakery food (up to $7). You can see loads of the beautiful buildings for free, and with a bit of Googling you could self-guide a city tour to learn about the city’s communist history.

To add in a nice local meal ($6-$10), a drink ($3) and the donation for a free walking tour ($6), I’d recommend budgeting around $40 a day.

You can get freshly baked goodies from local bakeries for less than 1BGN (about 65 cents), decent sandwiches or salads for lunch from 4-8BGN ($1.95-$4.50) or slightly fancier sit-down dinners from 12-20BGN ($6.50-$12). A local beer will cost anything from 2BGN to 6BGN depending on where you are ($1.30-$4).

The best things to do in Sofia

Despite it not being as well-known as other Eastern European hot spots like Prague and Budapest, the city has a lot going for it and there’s endless things to do in Sofia no matter what you’re into.

Gain some insight into Bulgaria’s rocky past, shop for second-hand goodies at flea markets, eat your heart out at some of my favourite cafés from all my travels, or escape the urban jungle and head out to explore another nearby city. Here’s five of the best things to do on your Sofia trip.

1. Learn about communist history

Bulgaria’s political past is something that’s still woven throughout the city, with huge headquarters, architecture, museums and statues representing the communist era from 1946 to 1989.

Whether you’re a total newbie to communist history or all clued up and want to see how if affected Bulgaria specifically, there’s a couple of places and tours to add to your Sofia communism class.

Coming from New Zealand, where communism’s never touched anywhere near our little corner of the world and where I opted for maths and science classes over history, geography and politics (nerd, I know), my knowledge of Eastern Europe’s communist regimes was limited.

First up is the Free Sofia walking tour, which runs three or four times a day (depending on the season) and is tip-based. Your local tour guide will take you around 20 of Sofia’s must-see spots, and you’ll get a decent overview of the history and politics of the city, as well as a local’s tips on things to do, eat and see.

Free Sofia also has a daily communism tour for only $11, which gives you a three-hour in-depth walk through of the city’s communist landmarks as well as an insight into what Sofia was like to live in during those 43 years.

Want more? Consider visiting the National Historical Museum or the Museum of Socialist Art, which is home to the huge red star that sat on top of the communist party’s headquarters before being overthrown in the late 80’s.

2. See the city’s most beautiful religious buildings

While the dominant religion in Bulgaria by far is Bulgarian Orthodox (at about 60%), there are some simply stunning churches, mosques, cathedrals and monasteries in the capital city.

Start off with the most epic building in the city, and one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. This seriously impressive Orthodox church was started in 1882 but not finished until 30 years later, and it’s one of the most iconic landmarks in Bulgaria’s capital city, with a 45m high gold-plated dome and interior made of onyx, marble and other ultra-fancy materials.

Other Orthodox churches that are worth a visit are St Nicholas Church (a Russian Orthodox church), the Sveti Sedmochislenitsi Church, and Sveta Nedelya Church, which has a dramatic history including a funeral bombing in 1925 by the Communist Party where over 500 of Bulgaria’s elite political figures were injured and 150 were killed.

After Eastern Orthodox, the next most common religion is Islam, with up to 15% of the population identifying as Muslim. Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule for almost 500 years, from the late 1300s until the Russian Empire took on the Ottoman Empire in 1878, but after being liberated thanks to Russia’s victory and then declaring independence in 1908, many buildings from this era were repurposed or destroyed. The 16th century Banya Bashi Mosque is the only functioning mosque left in Sofia, and as such it’s a bustling hub for the city’s Muslim community.

Ancient history fans will want to make a stop at Sveti Georgi, a 4th-century Christian church built by the Romans in the ancient city of Serdica. It’s the oldest building in the city, and it’s home to some stunning frescoes dating back to the 10th century.

3. Devour all the cheap food

I’m a big proponent for cooking your own food while travelling to stick within a tight budget, and usually allow myself a bit of spending money each week for a meal or two out. Buttttt in Sofia, I ate out every single meal of the whole week. Yes, I said every single meal!

The local food scene is not only cheap, but it’s actually seriously impressive too. From bakeries where you can get four pastries or savouries for the equivalent of €1, to Instagrammable brunch spots with next level dishes, to traditional restaurants serving up home-style dishes, I would go back in a second literally just for the food.

There’s bound to be an eatery in Sofia perfect for whatever type of food tickles your fancy, but here are some of my favourites.

Bistro Pesto was my number one, and I’m not ashamed to say I had lunch there four days in a row! They’re a super cute corner restaurant close to the main shopping boulevard, and they serve Italian food all day and night. Their panini menu is amazing; authentic Italian ingredients and a Bulgarian price tag. Win win!

If you’re looking for a funky food photo (no judgement here), check out the brunch menu at Rainbow Factory or Boho. I didn’t make it to Rainbow Factory but my hostel mates raved about it, and I can personally vouch for the Oreo pancake stack at Boho. Mmmmhmmmm.

And for a reasonably-priced but delicious sit-down dinner, be sure to visit the legends at Shtastlivetsa, a chain restaurant with a HUGE menu of home-cooked meals. Prices are understandably a bit higher than the local street food stalls, but the service is fantastic, the meals are massive and there are plenty of hearty Bulgarian dishes to choose from.

4. Head into the mountains

Sofia’s landscape is rare in terms of European capital cities, because there’s a mountain range so close to the city centre. The bottom of Vitosha Mountain is only 10kms or so from the city, and it’s easily reachable by taxi, public transport, or walking if you want to make a day of it.

In summer Vitosha is a popular hiking destination, where city-dwellers escape to on weekends to get some fresh air. The highest peak is 2290m but there’s also hikes around the bottom half of the mountain to different rivers and waterfalls.

During winter, the mountain is a ski resort, perfect for any snow bunnies on a budget. Although it is significantly less-developed than other European ski destinations like Switzerland and France, your day pass and rental will be much cheaper and your money will go way further.

As well as being an adrenaline activity hot spot, Vitosha is home to another Sofia must-see and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Boyana Church. Boyana is an Orthodox church from the 11th century and is famous for the many frescoes it houses, particularly a collection from way back in 1259.

5. Take a day trip

There’s some pretty incredible places to see and experience outside of Sofia itself, so if you’ve got the time, I’d recommend trying to squeeze in a day trip or two!

My top pick for a day trip from Sofia is Plovdiv, another Bulgarian city and one of the two 2019 European Capitals of Culture. Plovdiv is a couple of hours away from Sofia by bus, and tickets cost about £6 each way. Once you’re in the city I’d recommend jumping on a free walking tour, run by the same organisation who run the Sofia tour. They’ve got a city tour daily year-round as well as a free graffiti tour daily from October to April. And if you want to explore yourself, don’t miss the unique coloured houses that line the streets in the old town, it’s different to every other European old town I’ve seen!

Fancy a work out? There’s no better place in Bulgaria to get moving than in the Seven Rila Lakes area. Seven Rila Lakes is, you guessed it, home to seven glacial lakes in the Rila mountain range, and all are between 2100m and 2500m of altitude. It is possible but it’s tough to get there on public transport so it’s best to hire a car and drive (1.5-2 hours), or to book an organised day tour or shuttle bus. Bonus tip: Don’t miss Rila Monastery, a 10th-century Eastern Orthodox monastery and the largest in the country. Well worth a visit!

And there you have it, a full travel guide for Sofia and beyond for your Bulgarian adventure! Book your flight to Sofia now with STA Travel. If you want to follow more of my adventures you can find me on Instagram.

Credit: Source link

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico posted first on findqueenslandelectricians.blogspot.com

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico http://ift.tt/2t0grne

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jigging in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they friend the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality.

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

[lukerhill]

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jigging in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they friend the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality.

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

[vincentbnaughton]

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jigging in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they friend the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality.

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

[woodcraftor]

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jigging in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they friend the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality.

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico posted first on http://ift.tt/2qOPBf9

[truereviewpage]

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jigging in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they friend the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality.

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico published first on http://ift.tt/2qCHnUt

[spencerthorpe]

Idealist City Guide: PRAGUE

One of the great joys of the city of Prague is its potential for exploration, which is why we’re following John as he wanders through Prague’s maze of cobbled lanes and hidden courtyards.

Prague, capital of Czech Republic, is situated at the center of Europe positioned on the River Vltava’s banks. Equal of Paris in terms of beauty, Prague is best known for its beautiful art and architecture and some of the best shopping you can find. Its history goes back a millennium. And the beer? The best in Europe.

Must-See Attractions

Old Town Square: If you want an authentic way to feel Prague’s history, head down to Old Town Square. Beautiful architecture is the highlight of this scenic part of Old Town. Don’t miss the old town hall and the astronomical clock. Address: Staroměstské náměstí 110 00 Praha 1,Staré Město, Czechia

Charles Bridge: After floods wrecked the Judith Bridge in 1342, the Charles Bridge was built to replace it. Construction took place from 1357 to 1402. The bridge is decorated by the statues of 30 saints. Address: Charles Bridge, Praha 1 – Staré Město, Czechia

Vysehrad National Cultural Monument: While some of the details are a bit muddled, officials believe Vysehrad was built sometime during the 10th century, and is home to some of the oldest, most historically significant buildings in Prague. Address: Vyšehrad, V Pevnosti 159/5b, Praha 2 – Vyšehrad, 128 00

Dinner Cruise: What’s better than seeing the beautiful sites of Prague from the quiet luxury of a cruise? Eating dinner at the same time, of course. The cruise is 3 hours long and follows the Vitava River. Address: Cechuv Bridge, Dvorakovo nabrezi, pier 5, Prague, 11000, Czechia

Style Shopping

Flamant Home Interiors: Flamant was founded by three brothers as an expansion of their father’s antique business. This shop does a great job of combining modern and antique design trends to create a unique look. We especially love their sleek industrial chests and stylish lighting. Address: Flamant Store, Slovanský dům, Na Příkopě 22, Praha 1 Czech Republic +420 221 451 790

Konsepti: When curating their collections, Konsepti has one main focus: uniqueness. Their wide selection includes brands such as Flos, E15 and Cassina. We love their large variety of unique seating choices; you’re sure to find something you love. Address: Komunardů 32, 170 00 Praha 7, Czechia +420 266 199 452

Modernista: Having two stores is part of what makes Modernista so great. The Municipal House location has a unique collection of Art Deco pieces and can be found in the basement of the Municipal House. The Pavilon, the flagship location, has a stronger focus on interiors and contemporary design. Check out their stylish metal lighting and elegant glassware — we love them! Address: nám. Republiky 1090/5, 110 00 Staré Město, Czechia +420 222 002 102

A La Maison: If you’re only looking for some smaller accessories and accent pieces to finish off a room, check out A La Maison. Beautiful candlesticks and candle trays, rugs, chandeliers, vases and more highlight this shop’s collection. Plus they carry great brands like Möve and Balmuir. Address: Šafránkova 1238/1, 155 00 Praha 5, Czechia +420 233 322 563

Le Patio: No, they don’t only sell patio furniture. Le Patio is actually a high-end interior retailer specialising in unique furniture, accessories and lighting. Le Patio’s goal is to improve the rooms people use, thus improving the quality of their life. Some of our favourites include the EA Deco woven baskets and Zenza lighting collection. Address: New Living CenterJungmannova 748/30, 110 00 Praha 1, Czechia +420 224 934 402

Hotels

Residence Agnes: Featuring all of the regular amenities and a central location in Prague, Residence Agnes is a great place for anyone who wants to do plenty of walking and exploring. The hotel lobby’s beautiful contemporary decor provides a great atmosphere upon entry. Price level: Medium Address: Haštalská 19, 110 00, Prague 1, Czech Republic +420 222 312 417

MOODs Boutique Hotel: The cornerstone of MOODs is the unique design, and I can’t emphasise the unique part enough. They also offer great food and drinks and a spa treatment, so you’ll barely have to leave your hotel to get everything you need. Price level: Budget Address: Klimentská 28, 110 00 Prague 1, Czechia +420 222 330 100

Hotel General: If you’re looking to avoid the hustle and bustle of downtown Prague, the Hotel General is the place for you. While it’s a bit further from all the activities, its lovely atmosphere and friendly staff more than compensate for that. Price level: Medium Address: Svornosti 1143/10, 150 00 Praha 5-Smíchov, Czechia +420 257 318 320

Galleries & Museums

National Gallery in Prague: For art lovers, the National Gallery in Prague is the perfect museum. With a range of both permanent and temporary exhibitions, you’re sure to find something you love. They have many permanent exhibits, including “European Art from Antiquity to Baroque” and “The Art of Asia.” Address: The National Gallery in Prague, Staroměstské nám. 12, 110 15 Prague 1, Czech Republic +420 220 397 211

Wallenstein Palace Garden: Constructed right near the Wallenstein Palace in the 17th century, this garden is truly a sight to behold. It features expert landscaping and beautiful Baroque bronze statues which are replicas of the originals, which were created by Adrien de Vries and subsequently stolen by the Swedish army. Address: Wallenstein Garden, Letenská, Praha 1 – Malá Strana, 118 00 +420 257 075 707

Lobkowicz Palace: While beauty is abound here, the main focus is on Prague’s (and Czech Republic’s) place within European history. Their gallery includes paintings by Velazquez, Canaletto and Brueghel, as well as annotated manuscripts from legendary musicians. Address: Prague Castle Jiřská 3 119 00 Prague 1, Czechia +420 233 312 925

Food

The Portfolio: You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone complaining about this fine dining establishment. The chic atmosphere perfectly complements the food. Their monkfish in a roasted black truffle sauce is a favourite. For dessert, try their creme brulee or carmalized fruits and ice cream. Address: Portfolio restaurant, Lannův Palác, Havlíčkova 1030/1, 110 00 Praha 1 , Czechia +420 224 267 579

Vegan’s: If you’re looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary, try Vegan’s. Even those who aren’t vegan will appreciate the wonderfully crafted food. Their burgers are a great substitute for non-vegans, and their wonderful selection of cheesecakes and pies will satisfy your sweet tooth. Address: Vegan’s Prague, Nerudova 36, 11800 Praha, Czechia +420 735 171 313

Ristorante Pagana: This is a great local spot for a host of Italian food, including pasta, seafood and antipasti. They also have reasonably priced dishes, which can be difficult to find at a good Italian restaurant. Don’t forget to try their chestnut tiramisu! Address: Ristorante Pagana, Vladislavova 17, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic +420 224 056 300

Chocoffee: The perfect spot for fanatics of all things chocolate, Chocoffee serves up Belgian chocolate on tap in three varieties: white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. You can have your chocolate in a waffle, in a cone, or with fruit, nuts or pretzels. Address: Spálená 8/80, Praha 1, 11 000, Czechia +420 775 583 450

Getting There From London

The easiest way to travel from London to Prague is by plane. For round trip tickets spanning less than a week, flights can cost anywhere from £40 to £120 each way. The flight will take about two hours each way.

You May Also Like

Idealist City Guide: FLORENCE

Idealist City Guide: VENICE

Idealist City Guide: VIENNA

All photos courtesy of respective locations

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The post Idealist City Guide: PRAGUE appeared first on The Idealist.

from The Idealist https://www.theidealist.com/idealist-city-guide-prague/ from The Idealist Magazine https://theidealistmagazine.tumblr.com/post/162541029458

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico published first on http://ift.tt/2r6hzQy

[statusreview]

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico published first on http://ift.tt/2r6hzQy

[endlessarchite]

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico published first on http://ift.tt/2qxZz2j

[vincentbnaughton]

Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jigging in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they friend the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality.

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jigging in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they friend the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality.

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

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